A truly ‘lost world’ has been found by scientists under the sea near to Tasmania. As they were mapping the area about 250 miles east of Tasmania they have come upon a chain of volcanic towers which was previously unknown. These seamounts’ towers reach heights of 1.9 miles (3000 m) from the seafloor that surrounds them, although their peaks are still far from breaking the waves, being found at nearly 1.2 miles (2000 m) below the surface.
Dr. Tara Martin, who is a part of the CSIRO mapping team said in a statement that “our multi-beam mapping has revealed in vibrant detail, for the first time, a chain of volcanic seamounts rising up from an abyssal plain about 5000 meters deep. The seamounts vary in size and shape, with some having sharp peaks while others have wide flat plateaus, dotted with small conical hills that would have been formed by ancient volcanic activity”.
Also, the area is apparently teeming with aquatic life as the ship that was over the seamounts was visited by a large number of whales, long-finned pilots and humpbacks, according to Dr. Eric Woehler from BirdLife Tasmania, who was on board of the ship in order to study the marine life and sea birds.
He said that “we estimated that at least 28 individual humpback whales visited us on one day, followed by a pod of 60-80 long-finned pilot whales the next. We also saw large numbers of seabirds in the area including four species of albatross and four species of petrel”. According to the present research, it appears that these volcanic towers are used as a ‘stopping point’ by a lot of migratory animals, mainly whales, that might use the undersea terrain to help their navigation.